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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22574290">Sandstorm, Blurry Eyes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/spac3bar7end3r/pseuds/spac3bar7end3r'>spac3bar7end3r</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters: Sword &amp; Shield | Pokemon Sword &amp; Shield Versions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Raihan's pov, basically just things from Raihan's pov, kinda Raihan's story after Leon became champion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:29:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,165</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22574290</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/spac3bar7end3r/pseuds/spac3bar7end3r</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Raihan had always entertained the thought of becoming a champion but if he was honest with himself, he didn’t really want to be one.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sandstorm, Blurry Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>for the prompt: “You can’t give more than yourself.”<br/>just a short Raihan's pov because I love him. I know Leon is probably sad about being lost but the thought of Raihan tries to come to terms with it is 👌</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>11-year-old Raihan knew he wasn’t the best at Pokemon battles but he was pretty confident about his techniques. He has been studying everything he could get his hands on since he remembered. He didn’t care about things like being a champion or leader and that kind of stuff at that time at all. If anyone from the present knew they’d probably be stunned. He just wanted to explore the world with his pokemons and used all those tactics he has learned.</p><p>That’s it. <em> Until he met Leon. </em></p><p>         In the matter of strength, Leon was not better than him that much and Raihan was so much better at tactics, but every time Leon persisted. He gritted his teeth and kept fighting until both him and his last pokemon could win and Raihan just...lost? He couldn’t believe his eyes the first time it happened.</p><p><em> Who is this boy with the brightest golden eyes he had ever seen? </em>Leon. That who he was.</p><p>Can anyone win just from sheer determination? </p><p>Raihan guessed they can, looking at Leon overcoming every obstacle and becoming a champion, <em> THE </em> Champion, for years.</p><p>Raihan had always entertained the thought of becoming a champion but if he was honest with himself, he didn’t really want to be one. All the sponsorships and all that jazz were so annoying. And god, when he saw Leon’s cape for the first time, he was really glad he wasn’t the champion. It looked so ridiculous. Leon looked cool wearing the champion outfit though, Raihan had to give him that.</p><p>         Raihan closed his eyes and listened to the noise outside. The crowd had gone crazy.</p><p>“Now what?” Raihan heard someone entering the break room and just by listening from the footsteps he immediately knew it was Leon, so he asked him while his eyes still closed.</p><p>         “I guess I have to do the champion thing. Whatever that is.” Leon walked closer and scratched his cheek. “What about you?”</p><p>         “Remember the dragon gym leader?” Raihan asked and looked up, staring at the sweat drops on Leon’s forehead and followed them along his face like some kind of game, then quickly looked down at his Rotom phone.</p><p>         “Yup. What about them?”</p><p>         “They asked me to be their apprentice...or something, and take over the gym.”</p><p>A smile spread from Leon’s face, “That’s great!”</p><p>         “I guess, but I don’t think I’m gonna do it,” Raihan said softly, shaking his head.</p><p>         “What?”</p><p>         “I’ll be their apprentice alright; studying is my thing but being the gym leader…” Raihan shrugged. He</p><p>         “But—”</p><p>         “I mean, I don’t really want to fight everyone.” <em>I just want to fight</em> with you left unsaid. Raihan didn’t think it mattered. He didn’t even understand why he was so obsessed with fighting pokemon battles with Leon so much.</p><p>         “Well if that’s the case,” Leon says while looking apologetic.</p><p>         “I guess that means we have to go our separate way.”</p><p>         “If that is what you want then…” Leon frowned.</p><p>         “Let’s meet again when I get stronger. I will definitely beat you.” Raihan smiled.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p>5 years later</p><p>        </p><p>Hammerlocke University was a pretty good place to practice your skills and learn more about yourself. Raihan was 16 years old. Everything went smoothly like he thought it would be: he loved studying, trying to use tactics in battles. His life was great.</p><p>That’s it. <em> Until he met Leon. </em></p><p>         “Hey, do you know that Leon the Campion is coming to the campus to give an insight on Critical Attack? Are you coming?” One of his older classmates asked.</p><p>         “When?”</p><p>         “Like, in 10 minutes at the hall. All of our friends are already there.”</p><p>         “Alright, save me a seat. I’m gonna go return the books first.” Raihan pointed at the library. His friend nodded.</p><p> </p><p>         Raihan quickly returned his book and tried to enter the hall as quietly as possible. Leon was at the centre of the stage with his Charizard, smiling brightly to everyone.</p><p>Leon looked great. And by great Raihan meant he was absolutely stunning. Or maybe it was the puberty talking. Lately, Raihan had been finding boys and girls attractive, and it seemed like Leon wasn’t an exception. That stupid cape could not make him look less appealing.</p><p>A lot of people were so excited to meet Leon. They all wanted to get close to him. Well, Raihan guessed he was one of them. Raihan wanted to go closer, but there were just. So. Many. People. So he just stared at him from afar.</p><p>Suddenly Leon was looking in his direction and smiled.</p><p>He didn’t know if that smile was meant for him or for the audience in general, but that still made his heart beat in a crazy rhythm.</p><p>Raihan missed that smile, but the thing he missed the most was standing at the opposite side on the field with Leon. He missed the adrenaline.</p><p>He looked around and he noticed a lot of people looked excited. It seemed like a lot of people wanted</p><p>Maybe becoming a gym leader and challenging the champion might not be a bad idea after all.</p><p>“Hey Sebastian, wanna train to fight in a gym with me?” Raihan poked at his underclassman who just stared at Leon with sparkles in his eyes.</p><p>Guess they could be Leon’s fanboys together.</p><p> </p><p>*</p><p> </p><p>         Raihan didn’t want to boast but 18-year-old him was at his peak. His followers on social media sites were rocketing up. His pokemons loved him. He was more confident about himself.</p><p> </p><p>He hated to admit this again but: That’s it. <em> Until he met Leon </em>.</p><p> </p><p>“I thought you didn’t want to be a gym leader?” Leon tilted his head when they met at the restaurant, sitting across from each other. Later on, it will become their favourite meeting spot, but that they wouldn’t admit it until they finally resolved the rival and champion thing. This time it was just Raihan calling him and telling the news about his new position at the gym.</p><p>         “I don’t want you to be bored. I notice no one is able to defeat you. No one can get close to you like me.” Raihan smiled to himself.</p><p>Leon blushed a little before trying to change a topic, “Where are your glasses? I remember last time I went to your uni you were wearing ones.”</p><p>Raihan didn’t think Leon saw him at the university because there were a lot of people, so he was a bit surprised. Guess that smile was really for him, huh?</p><p>         “Well, I should not look like a nerd when there are so many audiences out there watching, should I?” Raihan winked, then went back to the earlier topic, “I studied Pokemon history when I was in uni, so they think it would do me greatly if my position is here at Hammerlocke.”</p><p>         “I think you look cool wearing them.” Leon mumbled before raising his voice and spoke normally, “I love gym at hammerlocke! If you are there, I’ll go there and have pokemon battles with you at any time!”</p><p>         “Remember that I am your rival?” Raihan smiled.</p><p>         Leon grinned. “Yes, I always want to have battles with you like those times when we were young.”</p><p>Raihan nodded. Years in the university have been eye-opening to him. He appreciated pokemon battles more now that he grew up. However, there was always a Leon-shaped missing from his life and Raihan desperately wanted it back.</p><p>He wanted to be Leon’s rival.</p><p>*</p><p>
  <em> And you aim to defeat Leon... Do you have any idea just how high a hurdle that is? </em>
</p><p>         He spoke lightly to the kid, but that was the thing he always wanted to ask himself.</p><p>Can anyone win just from sheer determination? </p><p>Raihan guessed some can.</p><p>Look at the kid. They look haggard and all but they still stand firm.</p><p>He looked around the stadium. When the sandstorm began to settle and the audience gathered what happened, Raihan just blinked slowly, getting rid of the pricking feeling of sand in his eyes. He swallowed some emotions welling up in his throat and took a deep breath.</p><p>He ruffled his hair and calmed himself. Fine. He lost.</p><p>"I’m still pretty young myself, but it just goes to show that there’s always someone younger coming up, reaching further than you ever dreamed... And you’ve got your whole future ahead of you!" </p><p>He smiled.</p><p>Or at least he hoped he smiled.</p><p>+</p><p>Can anyone win just from sheer determination?</p><p>         Raihan guessed some can.</p><p>But not everyone can, looking at the reflection of himself on the blank screen. He’s never won against Leon and now, even Leon himself has lost to a mere 11-year-old kid.</p><p>When the next scene is pulled up on the screen, it’s a familiar body he’s seen all the time. However, at that moment, that body looks so small. Leon lowers his head, using his hat to conceal his emotion.</p><p>Raihan swallows. So this is what happens when he loses. Raihan saw it ten years ago, but since Leon was invincible for years, he forgot about it.</p><p>Many questions like ‘Would he look like that if I were the one who won?’ or ‘If I stand in front of him, would I be able to see Leon’s emotion under the shadow?’ run fast through his head for a split second.</p><p> </p><p>Everyone went out of the room to congratulate the new Champion. However, Raihan decides to be a poor sport and stays inside. He throws himself on the couch, looking at the screen grimly. He knew this day would come. He is confident it would happen. The thing is, it was supposed to be him, standing at the other side of the stadium while taking the champion position out of Leon, but this?</p><p>Has he ever thought there would be a possibility that someone else would do that instead of him? Of course. Raihan is nothing but a realist. However, he still hopes every day that it would be him. <em> It should be his job </em>.</p><p>         “Are you alright?” is the first thing Leon says to him when he comes back to the break room.</p><p>         “What do you mean, am I alright?” Raihan hovers his hand close to Leon’s shoulder before he decides to pat it two or three times. “It’s not about me—you, are you alright?”</p><p>         “Me? It hurts, my pride, that’s it. But I somehow know they would win.”</p><p>         “Yeah?”</p><p>         Leon nods. “Even before the Eternatus. That kid sure is wild. No wonder Hop is so fixated with them.” He laughs openly as if he didn’t lose a battle to an 11-year-old.</p><p>         “So that’s it? That’s why you’re worried about me?” Raihan raises one of his eyebrows.</p><p>         “I know you like to battle, especially with me…and now that I lost…”</p><p>         “I still have no idea why you think it has something to do with me.”</p><p>         “Raihan, you and I both know you took the gym leader status because you wanted to have battles with me. All those studying and fighting with other challengers.”</p><p>         “That’s not true.” Raihan frowns.</p><p>         Leon smiles bitterly, saying, “You can’t give more than yourself.”</p><p> “You think me being like this,” Raihan gesturing to himself, “is because of you? No.” He shook his head.</p><p>Not all of him. Significant parts of him? Yes. But Leon didn’t need to know that. Yet.</p><p>         “I didn’t say that—I just, Raihan, I know you want to be the one who defeats me, and I am sorry you were not.”</p><p>         Raihan lowered his head and stayed silent.</p><p>         “The thing you did might not be because of me, but I felt like I let you down somehow... Me too, I want to stay as a champion, and when the time comes, I want you as a rival to take that status from me too.”</p><p>         “…”</p><p>         “I think I know what you feel to some extent. Because I think I feel the same.”</p><p>        </p><p>Can anyone win from sheer determination?</p><p>         Raihan guessed they can, but not everyone can do that. Or maybe it was just him.</p><p>Man, he should go see a therapist or something. These feelings are gonna eat him alive.</p><p> </p><p>Raihan closes his eyes and instead of saying anything, Leon reaches his hand out and puts his hat on Raihan’s head. Raihan didn’t know what kind of expression he is making. Maybe he was wearing the same one as Leon at the field, that’s why Leon recognised it.</p><p>Raihan cried. It isn’t that kind of crying that you keep sobbing, heaving and feeling like the world would end. It’s just two or three teardrops slowly falling from his lashes. Leon follows the tears like it is some kind of game. And maybe it <em> is </em> a game. Raihan looks and follows Leon. That is what always happened, but this time Raihan notices that Leon also looks back and follows him as well.</p><p>Leon kisses lightly on Raihan’s eyelids and slowly wiped the tears away.</p><p>And if later on the audience or the reporters saw his red eyes, he would say it was just a sandstorm.</p>
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